UK to investigate if streaming services such as Apple pay artists fairly — Apple World Today

In November, the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will launch an investigation into what musicians are paid by streaming services and exactly how they’re paid, reports the BBC.

At present, Spotify is believed to pay between £0.002 and £0.0038 per stream, while Apple Music pays about £0.0059. YouTube pays the least – about £0.00052 (or 0.05 pence) per stream. All of that money goes to rights-holders, which the BBC says is a “blanket term” that covers everything from massive record companies to artists who put out their own music, before being divided up.

Often, the recording artist will only receive about 13% of the revenue, with labels and publishers keeping the rest. Streaming services have been criticized from the beginning for the relatively small royalty payments they make to individual artists.